Straw-cutter



UNITED STATES PTENT OFFICE.

T. BURREL AND E. BURREL, OF SENECA, NEW' YORK.

STRAW-CUTTER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 6,706, dated September 11, 1849.

To all whom t may concern Be it. known that we, T'HoMAs BURREL andEDWARD BURREL, of the town of Seneca, in the county of Ontario and Stateof New York, have invented new and useful improvements in machinescommonly known by the name of Straw-Cutters; and we do hereby declarethat the following is a I full, clear, and exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l is a perspective` view Fig. 2, ahorizontal section. Fig. 3 a vert-ical section. Fig. et a sect-ionthrough t-he box, exhibiting the plank or bed piece to which themachinery is attached. Fig. 5, is a side view showing the connection andworking of the operative feeding parts. Fig. 6, is a detached part ofFig. Fig. 7, an end view of the mouth of the cutting box and Fig. S, isthe cutting wheel.

The nature construction and operation of our invention is described asfollows, the

same letters of reference indicating the same parts in all the figureswherever they occur, viz:

We construct a frame with four posts; H, H, are the two front posts, andthe two rear posts are placed under the bed piece L. These four postsare connected together by two ties at each end and side, the top onessquare and the bottom ones broad, to hinder the frame from rocking. Thefront plate I, to the frame is about nine inches higher than the backplate orbed piece L, as shown in Figs. l and 3, the bed plank or plateL, being firmly bolted on the back part of the frame to the two endties. The plank L, is about sixteen inches wide, and three or fourinches thick. On it the machinery rests and to it are firmly bolted,first two side plates of iron G, at the proper distances fromeach other.Between these side plates are placed four rollers E, the journals ofwhich pass through the said side plates and the side plates formbearings for the two lower rollers, and the journals of t-he two upperrollers E, go through long slits or mortises in the side plates vGr andpass through the slides il, these slides forming bearings for the twoupper rollers, and working up and down in grooves in thc flanges on theoutside of the plates G, and these two upper rollers are raised up 'anddown in these slides as the thickness of the feed requires, and if theirweight is not suticient to press the sheet hard enough, weight may beadded (in the machine made for our use the slides weight 5G lbs eachmaking 112 lbs on the sheet) and the plates G are connected on the frontend at the bottom by an iron plate O Fig. 7, on which are flanges on theback side at the ends and top, and is firmly bolted through the two sideplates G and through the end flanges of the front plate O, the top ofthis front plate O, forms a bed for the steel bar or die U, which isfirmly screwed to plate O,l and nicely fitted to the bottom front rollerto prevent anything from drawing in between them to choke the machine.At the top the side plates Gr are connected by a rod Y and on the leftside is bolted the lleg or bearing P, to the side plate G, Fig. 7, whichforms a bearing to one end of the shaft B, the other end of this shaftresting on the front plate I, Fig. 2.

The balance wheel F Fig. 8 has on it four knives or cutters D. screwedto the arms of the wheel. The arms of the balance wheel being crookedenables the knives to slide on the face of the die in making a cut, asmuch as the heel of the knife is above the center of the axis, and bythis means makes it cut more easily. The balance wheel F. hangs on4 theshaft B. and the knives cut ,close to the steel bar or die U. On the endof the shaft- B is a screw or worm a.. Fig. 2 which meshes into a smallcog wheel on the end of the shaft lV, Fig. 2, which turns the lowerroller E. On the other' end of the shaft 7 in rear of the cog wheel JFig. 2 is a wheel which drives the cog-wheel T and the wheel T meshesinto another wheel on the rear of the cogwheel J. on the back bottomroller which drives and secures the back bottom roller. The two cogwheels J. on the lower rollers (Figs. 2 and 5) drive two cylinder cog orpinion wheels K. K. (Fig. 2) which drive the two cog wheels J. on theupper rollers. On the right hand plate on Fig. 5 are two crooked ironbars R. R. (see Fig. 6) bolt-ed to the side plate, between which areplaced the two pinions K. K. and between the lower bar R. and the sideplate is placed the wheel T. the two lower rollers are smooth and theupper front roller has in it a number of iron plates projecting aboveits surface about a quarter of an inch, in the ordinary way, and theback top roller has 8 or 9 rows of spikes projecting about an inch, withtheir points bent forward (F ig. 3) to make them discharge from thesheet as it passes through to the knives. On the back part of the platesGr is attached a feeding box V. Figs. l and 3, with a roller X. at thehind end of it. Around the bottom roller E and the roller X, is a belt Mwhich carries the straw or stalks into the machine, and the four rollerscarry it up to the knives steadily, without any slipping back when theknives strike it. There is another belt s s driven by the strap Z, fromthe pulley C, to drive the small pulley Q and give motion to the endlessapron (s s) which receives the cut stuff as it falls from the knives anddischarges it (the cut stuft) in t-he direction of (d) Fig. 1 into anyproper receptacle.

This straw cutter may be propelled by steam, horse or manual powerapplied to the main shaft B, in any of t-he known methods.

That we claim as new and useful and for which we desire to secureLetters Patent is- 1. The employment of four feeding rollers in themanner herein described, the top hind rollers having spikes on itssurface to hold firmly the straw, &c., and the combination of the saidfour rollers to feed in the straw or stalks with a steady, uniformmotion so that the action of the cutter wheel will not arrest the motionof the sheet of stalks, 8vo., when fed into the knives however great thespeed of the cutter wheel may be.

2. We claim the cylinder iuted pinion wheels K. K. in combination withthe upper face cog wheels J. J. to allow the top rollers to rise up andslide down when different thicknesses of stalks, Src., are fed into thecuttersthis being a superior' manner of gearing to accomplish this object, and avoid all breakage of cogs in the wheels for the purposes setforth. 4

' THOMAS BURREL.

EDWARD BUR-REL. Witnesses J. BoNEs'rEEL, E. H. HURD.

